Online digital media systems enable customers to search for, select, price and license digital media items to be downloaded for subsequent use. Uses for digital media include advertising, incorporation into print publications such as newspapers and magazines, incorporation into online publications such as websites and blogs and personal consumption, such as listening to music at home.
Digital media systems (DMS) enable contributors, i.e. providers of digital media items, to upload digital media to a central repository for search, browsing, licensing and downloading for subsequent use by customers of the DMS. Such a DMS typically provides an interface that enables a contributor of digital media to upload digital media to the DMS, and to interactively specify attributes, or “metadata,” that describe, or provide associated information for, the digital media. Such metadata may include a model release form or property release form that states the terms under which the model or property shown in a photo or video may be used. The contributor interface is typically an application, such as a Web-based application, that runs on a contributor computer and interacts with one or more server computers that provide DMS services across a network.
In traditional photography and video, model releases and property releases are typically paper forms that are signed by a model or property owner or manager. With the advent of computers and now smart mobile devices it is possible to display a release form in electronic format on a digital device and to enable a person to sign the form on an interactive interface using a stylus or by gesturing with his/her finger on the display of the mobile device. Further, with the advent of network-connected mobile devices it is possible to upload an electronic release form to a DMS upon signature thus entirely eliminating paper processing.
Thus it would be advantageous if a model or property owner could sign a release form using a mobile device provided by the photographer or contributor and then upload the data directly to the DMS. Further, it would be advantageous if the contributor could add metadata about the release or media items while in the field preferably using the same mobile interface. This would enable seamless integration of electronic release forms uploaded by a contributor using a mobile device to a DMS.
Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.